If you have been injured because of a slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall accident while you were on someone else’s property, you may be able to recover compensation for your injuries, damages and losses. In such cases, the plaintiff (victim) must show negligence (carelessness) on the part of the property owner, property manager and/or other parties. One example of negligence that often arises in New York City slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall cases, especially those that involve stairwells, is the landlord’s failure to provide safe lighting for tenants and visitors to the property.
According to a study in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, 1 million people in the United States injured themselves on stairs every year. Older adults, younger children and women reported more injuries, but all ages show up in emergency departments for sprains, strains, bumps and fractures, etc.
Why is Inadequate Lighting Dangerous?
Poor lighting at a residential or commercial property can definitely prove to be a slip-and-fall or trip-
and-fall hazard. Typically when the lighting is inadequate it hides conditions otherwise safely negotiable that now causes a person to slip or trip. For example, when there is a lack of lighting at a stairwell, a visitor might miss a step and end up falling down. That accident might not have occurred had the visitor been able to see the step that he or she missed because there wasn’t enough lighting in the area.
Insufficient lighting can be especially dangerous when it hides the presence of a hazardous material/substance on the property. For example, if a liquid has been spilled on a stairway or if there are pieces of debris on a stairway, it can be hard to see without adequate lighting. Such conditions pose an even greater threat when the lighting fails or has burnt out.
Lack of lighting can stem from design flaws in how a property is laid out or planned out. For example, a stairwell in a parking lot or parking structure may not be properly illuminated because it might have been designed and constructed with an inadequate number of light sources.
In some cases, lack of proper maintenance by the building owner or manager can also cause dangerous conditions such as insufficient lighting. For example, when light bulbs fail and are not promptly replaced, it may create a dangerous condition with insufficient lighting. In other cases, a slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall may occur because the owner or manager of a property failed to warn visitors about a dangerous condition such as inadequate lighting.
What to Do If You’ve Been Injured
If you or a loved one has been injured in a slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall accident due to poor lighting, there are a number of steps that are important to take in order to protect your rights:
• Get prompt medical attention for any injuries you may have suffered. Such accidents have the potential to cause serious injuries such as head injuries, neck and back injuries and broken bones. This helps establish documentation with regard to the types of injuries you suffered and the treatment you received.
• File an accident or incident report with the owner or manager of the property and obtain a copy of this report for your own records.
• Preserve as much evidence from the accident scene as possible. Take cell phone photos and/or video of the dangerous condition that caused your fall. Get contact information for anyone who might have seen you fall.
• Contact an experienced New York City slip-and-fall accident lawyer who will help you secure maximum compensation for your losses.
Contacting an Experienced Lawyer
If you were involved in a slip-and-fall or a trip-and-fall accident as a result of someone else’s negligence (carelessness), please remember that you have rights. Some of the damages that victims of such accidents can claim include, but are not limited to, medical expenses, loss of wages and benefits, cost of hospitalization, surgery, physical therapy, past and future pain and suffering, permanent injury, etc.
The experienced New York personal injury attorneys with the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options and also fight hard to recover just compensation for you. For over 49 years, our skilled attorneys have established a proven track record of helping injured victims.
Our law firm recovered $1,700,000 for a woman who slipped and fell and received no hospital or medical treatment for one month after the accident. Our law firm also recently recovered $5,600,000 for a bicyclist who was hit by a van, and $2,550,000 for another victim of a truck accident, and $3,000,000 for a pedestrian who was hit by a car, and the full $1,000,000 insurance policy for a pedestrian who was hit by a truck, and $4,625,000 for a driver who was in a car and was hit by a van, and $2,500,000 for a man who fell through an improperly secured hole. Also, one of our clients obtained a verdict for $43,940,000 and another of our clients got a verdict for $23,500,000, both in medical malpractice cases.
Please contact us TOLL FREE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). WE CAN EVEN COME TO YOU. There is no attorneys’ fee unless we recover money for you. We can also help with personal injury and medical malpractice cases in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
Other TOLL FREE phone numbers for us are:
1-800-RADIO-LAW, 1-888-WYPADEK, OR 1-800-LAS-LEYES
Please visit us at: www.WORK4YOULAW.com